UpLabs
Currently an engineering manager at Apple. Work is OK-ish, no promo expected in the next few years I think. Work is pretty boring but stable, my manager is whatever but my team is good. UpLabs VC reached out for Venture CTO (basically a founding engineer if I understand it correctly) role. Looks interesting, they have decent funding and pretty solid partners (Porsche from the disclosed ones). Their business is to start a couples of ventures having a few (4-5) vetted ideas with already found customers/partners and get it to market. Venture CTO is doing all the ground work, including architect, TL and then growing team. My guess is it is not going to be boring for sure. TC: ~400k (M1) #engineering #software #swe
Did you talk to them and if so what happened
Any idea on comp? Sounds interesting if you’re looking for a startup culture. Since you already have Apple on the resume if you have savings you can afford to F around at a startup for a bit. The 4-5 ideas part sounds a bit weird though, I’d think normally you’d try to find PMF with one product? Maybe just not understanding what you mean.
Yeah, they actually position themselves as a very unique VC fund/company. Here is the quote from their website UP.Labs is a first-of-its-kind venture lab unlocking the future of transportation and mobility. We work with global corporate partners to identify the most pressing challenges that they, and broader society, face. Inspired by these complex problems, we launch startups built by proven entrepreneurs, product leaders and technologists to develop transformative solutions. After these companies have matured and proven market fit, our corporate partners are able to acquire them, reaping strategic value while enriching their culture and core business. We believe this to be the shortest road to a faster, cleaner, safer, and more accessible future.
I can’t really tell if this is an incubator for startups or just kind of a fancy external consultant type thing. Seems like you’d build prototypes and then if a partner likes it they buy the IP?